THE DYE OF THE WHELK. 73 



same fact is mentioned by Richard of Cirencester, * and also 

 in a translation of Higden's Polichronicon made in the year 

 1387. f The language used by these authors implies that 

 the art was familiarly known and followed, but, from its 

 limited utility, it seems gradually to have gone into disuse, 

 until at length a few families only preserved the custom of 

 the olden time, and handed it down to their posterity as a 

 family secret. In 1684, Mr. William Cole, of Bristol, having 

 been informed that "there was a certain person living by 

 the sea-side in some port or creek in Ireland, who made con- 

 siderable gain by marking with a delicate durable crimson 

 colour fine linen of ladies, gent., &c.," a colour which was 

 " taken out of a shell-fish," was induced to institute some 

 experiments on the common shell-fish of our coast, and after 

 various trials he succeeded in finding the object of his search 

 in the Purpura lapillus. After breaking the shell carefully, 

 " there will appear," he says, " a white vein lying transversely 

 in a little furrow or cleft, next to the head of the fish," a 

 description you will remark in exact accordance with Aris- 

 totle's, and in this vein the white viscid liquor is found 

 with which the linen is to be marked. J Jussieu made simi- 

 lar experiments, in 1709, on the shores of France ; which, in 

 the year following, were repeated by the celebrated Reaumur, 

 who has given a very interesting account of his inquiry in 

 the Histoire de F Academic des Sciences Naturelles for 1711. 

 Reaumur also accidentally discovered that the egg-vesicles 

 of the Purpura afforded the dye in greater abundance, and 

 with less trouble to the experimenter, than the fish itself. 

 These vesicles, which are of a vase-like shape, and about the 

 size of grains of wheat, hang in clusters under shelving 

 rocks ; and although Reaumur could never satisfy himself 

 whether they were the eggs of the Purpura, or the eggs of 

 some fish on which it fed, their nature is no longer un- 

 certain. The experiments of these naturalists have been 

 subsequently repeated by others, so that the nature of the 

 dye is now well-known. It has been ascertained, too, that 



* Desc. of Britain, 28.- 



j* " Ther beth ofte take delphyns and see calves and balenys gret fishes 

 as hit were a whalles kynde and dyverse maner shelle fishe. among the 

 shelle fishe beth muscles that hath among hem mariory perles of all maners 

 coloure and hew rody and reed of purple and of blew and specialy most of 

 white, ther is also of shel that we dieth with fyne reede. the rednesse ther 

 of is wondre fayre and stable and steyneth never with colde ne with hete ne 

 with drie but ever the eldere the hew is fayrere." Book i. ch. 38 of "Bre- 

 tayn/' For this extract I am indebted to "the Rev. Jos. Stevenson, so well 

 known for the extent of his acquaintance with our early historical literature. 



% Phil. Trans, xv. 1280. 



